Matt Johnson: Keep pace with the digital revolution or ignore it at your peril

Dec 19 2007 by Bill Gleeson, Liverpool Daily Post

IF YOU'VE battled your way through a stint of Christmas shopping in recent days, braving crowded streets and stores, you may find recently published surveys at odds with the evidence of your own eyes and ears.

Our shops, according to researchers, are less busy than they have been in previous pre-Christmas trading.

The numbers of shoppers out and about in November were down 2.9% on the same month in 2006, says a study by Footfall.

Part of this drop is ascribed to an increase in the numbers of people using the internet to do more of their shopping. The growth in e-commerce this Christmas has been staggering. The number of visitors to shopping and classified websites jumped 22.4% in November. Think about that. By any standards, that is a growth rate which many business people can only dream of.

In total, it is estimated shop-pers in the UK have been spend-ing £200m a day on the internet in the run-up to Christmas.The mind boggling continues when you discover online holiday spend is likely to top £4bn.

This bumper Christmas spend, set to be about 50% more than last year, is likely to be followed by bigger internet sales through-out 2008, analysts at accountants Deloitte predict.

They say growth has been driven by factors including great-er consumer ease with online shopping, and the fact more and more firms trade on the web.

The numbers are big and mark-ets are even bigger. So, regardless of what type of business you are in, are you sure you are making the most of opportunities pre- sented by internet technology?

The sector in which my busi-ness operates is at the forefront of delivering creative solutions and opportunities to a huge range of businesses. The growth in technology and solutions it offers has been phenomenal. It's this that underpins the sort of activity behind the figures above.

Phenomenal it may be, but I am convinced we are only really starting to scratch the surface.

As you start to wind down your work for the seasonal shutdown (assuming you are!) consider the extent to which you use or rely on technology to develop and grow your business. As consum-ers, we all see the ways in which technology is changing lives. Communication is, I guess, the area where we have witnessed most change. Many of us have changed the way we communi-cate. Adopting these new tech-nologies can be a challenge, but it's one which businesses must face to remain competitive.

Research published this week suggests the over-50s have a fear of fraud which prevents them going on line. Find a technolog-ical solution to solve that, and you will open up another sizeable market for silver surfers.

The digital revolution shows no sign of slowing. Keep pace – or fall behind at your peril! The shops may be shut. But the web is always open.

Have a peaceful and enjoyable holiday.

MATT JOHNSON is chairman of Mando Group